The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
In-person human based inspections of structures and various types of objects can be time consuming, expensive, difficult and often dangerous for an individual to perform. Examples of structures that pose significant challenges in inspecting are bridges, dams, levees, power plants, power lines or electrical power grids, water treatment facilities; oil refineries, chemical processing plants, high rise buildings, infrastructure associated with electric trains and monorail support structures, just to name a few.
The use of static cameras (i.e., fixedly mounted cameras) to provide periodic pictures of a structure or object requiring periodic visual inspection has met with limited effectiveness. Static cameras have a limited field-of-view. Therefore, inspecting a large area, such a power line stretching hundreds of meters or more, is difficult or impossible without using a large number of such cameras. Furthermore, once a camera is mounted in place, it may not be easily accessible for repair or maintenance. The mounting of the camera may require it to be exposed to the elements, which can decrease the reliability and/or cost of operation of the camera.
A static camera mounted near a top of a bridge, to obtain periodic pictures of a structural portion of the bridge, may also be difficult and/or costly to access by an individual if a repair or maintenance becomes necessary. The act of requiring an individual to access a camera mounted high atop a bridge, dam, etc., could also entail significant risk to human safety for the worker or workers charged with such a task.
Occasionally an infrastructure may require inspection where because of environmental, chemical or biological elements the inspection would place a human worker at significant risk to his or her health. Such a situation might be found inside a manufacturing facility, where a periodic regular inspection of a portion of the facility or machines operating within it, in areas where harmful chemicals may be present, needs to be made. Inspection of structural portions of an offshore oil drilling platform would be another example where environmental factors could make the inspection of various parts of the platform by humans fraught with hazard. Still other structures, for example large antennas or telescopes located on mountains, can present situations where inspection by a human presents significant risk to the individual's safety.
In some inspection applications human piloted helicopters have been used to inspect various infrastructures. However, human piloted helicopters can be expensive to operate in terms of asset cost (helicopter, fuel and maintenance) and operational cost (pilot salary). In addition, inspection is limited by the available number of pilots and helicopters and can be hazardous in some instances, such as during rain or dust storms. Also, the use of human piloted helicopters is sometimes simply not possible during inclement weather.
Remote controlled (RC) helicopters are lower in cost but require a trained RC pilot, and thus inspecting a large area with multiple helicopters requires a large number of expensive trained RC pilots. In addition, precision inspection and the time duration during which an inspection operation may be performed can be limited because of the available number of RC pilots and RC helicopters.